Baseball taught us our creed, says JJ reader

The Jackie Robinson 15U Little League Team posed after a game on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013 at Pershing Field. Photo courtesy of Bruce Henson

As a youngster growing up in Jersey City's Downtown section, on reflection, it sort of reminded this writer of a present day United Nations. The one-block area (Ninth Street between Erie and Grove) clearly demonstrated how Italians, Polish, Irish, Hispanics and African Americans could live together in a one-block area in an amicable and productive manner. The major issue at that time was our fathers going to work in the meat packing companies or nearby chemical factories located in the East Ward section of Newark.

Interestingly enough, where the so-called "social divide" took place primarily focused on one's baseball team of choice. The major teams consisted of the "Big Three" -- the Dodgers, Yankees and the Giants. My boyhood friend, Paul Kaprowski, whom we called "Donnie," often spoke of becoming a Willie Mays, the Giants Hall of Fame fielder. My other teammate Silvio Debenadeto dreamed of becoming a Sal Maglie (National League All Star). The father of one of my friends played behind Alvin Dark, Giants shortstop, while in the minor leagues.

The sport of baseball was by far the most interesting topic of the period. The neighborhood kids would someway, somehow find a way to attend at least one of the big three games. It was more than just baseball. It was baseball laying the foundation for a social movement. A movement without the presence of Walter White, the former director of the NAACP, Whitney Young's Urban League or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s SCLC.

In the midst of baseball's local competitions, our neighborhood team, the Pavonia Tigers, won the citywide recreation baseball championship (12 years old and under). At this time, John V. Kenny was the mayor and Frank Sinatra was on his way to becoming famous. En route to the championship, we defeated our friends who lived in the adjacent neighborhood (Hamilton Park), the Hamilton Indians, and my church-related friends who attended Grace Episcopal Church. The latter produced three outstanding clergymen, to say the least: Episcopal Bishops Paul Moore Jr., Kilmer Myers and James P. Morton, who later became dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. The three of them challenged social injustices.

Nevertheless, our team, coached by Al Bogowitz (Al Bogo), reinforced the insignificance of race in the same fashion Branch Rickey set out to accomplish in Major League baseball. They were Irish, Polish, African Americans, Italians, Hispanics, Catholics and Protestants. Not to anyone's surprise, the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees still merited top billing.

More than just winning the Recreation League Championship, I became more aware of a person named Jackie Robinson, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later became the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He could hit, field and run the bases like no other. He had an impeccable character, discipline and the kind of patience necessary, mandated and required to help "America Become America Again."

Most of us who happen to be African American, similar to Jackie Robinson, wanted to play second base, argue with the umpire when they missed a call, but more than anything learn to win or lose with grace, dignity and class.

I grew up with admiration and affection for one of baseball's greatest players who ever lived, Jackie Robinson. This feeling was reaffirmed when my daughter enrolled and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, the school that Branch Rickey, the former president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, attended. The same school that helped to instill within him the value of justice and fair play. It was also the residents in the neighborhood that indicated early on that race was an insignificant phenomenon if society implemented the values of their respective religions.

Maybe this social experiment can permeate many of today's neighborhoods by creating a level of inclusiveness that projects the true insignificance of race. A thanks to Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and Downtown Jersey City for seriously implementing the American Creed. A lesson that needs to be further reinforced in the efforts to ensure social justice for all.
NIATHAN ALLEN